Hard as STEL
by capnhook99
Summary: A thief, a vengeful hunter, and a pair of mysterious strangers with impossible knowledge. With skills and ambitions as varied as their backgrounds, when these four arrive at Beacon it is sure to herald immense changes. But will these changes be for the better, or will events spiral out of control to the ruin of everyone in Remnant?
1. Prologue

**A/N:** Hey guys (and gals), so this is my first ever fanfic; as such, any advice or suggestions on how to improve it would be appreciated. For now, please enjoy!

* * *

 **Prologue**

 _A dark, seemingly abandoned warehouse, located someplace in rural Canada_

"Did that do it?" a tired-sounding voice called out from the shadows in the corner of the room. The speaker, a young man, about 17, with medium length curly grey hair and piercing steel-blue eyes, emerged from a panel in the wall through which, by the now-visible light of his flashlight, a number of cables could be glimpsed. Standing at 6'6", with a barrel chest and well muscled arms and legs, he struck an imposing figure, and an unkempt curly beard that looked more like he hadn't bothered to shave than it did an intentional effort at serious growth seemed only to enhance the impression. His arms and face, along with his jeans, flannel shirt, and even his shoes, were covered in oil.

The target of his question, a blonde woman with brilliant green eyes who stood at just over 5'7", looked to be the same age as the man, and was wearing cut-off jean shorts and a white t-shirt under a light red sweater, was sitting at a desk before several monitors. She tossed the ponytail she had been readjusting back behind her head and focused her attention on the information now streaming across the screens in front of her.

"I think so..." she responded after a few moments. "Yeah... yeah, it's coming online!" her voice was getting steadily more excited as she typed a few commands into the keyboard before her before turning to face her friend. "I think we actually managed it! Just a couple of tests to make sure it's stable, and I think we've actually done it!"

"Seriously?!" he exclaimed, his previous exhaustion forgotten. Thrilled at this news, the man ran over to where she was to look at the information on the monitors himself, unable to contain his excitement. "Finally! We actually found a way to get to Remnant! God, this is amazing!" Regaining his composure, he faced the woman. "Are you sure you've managed to lock down a location and time that the portal will open to?"

"Of course. Outskirts of Vale, three months before the events of Volume 1, just like we planned."

"Good. That should give us time to get used to Remnant, find a way to get into Beacon, and establish some sort of surveillance to keep an eye on what Cinder's up to. If we're lucky, we may even discover Salem's location."

"Right. Commencing final tests. Ooh, this is so exciting!" The woman turned back to the monitors and began typing another series of commands into the keyboard, before the two of them looked up to the machine in front of them.

Before them, in the centre of the room, was a large circular platform, raised slightly from the floor. On three sides of the platform, spaced equally apart, were heavily reinforced metal scaffold-like structures which leaned inward to connect to a metal ring hanging above the centre of the platform. As they looked, electricity coursed through the wiring in the scaffolds, coalescing in the ring, until in the middle of the ring, hanging in the air, an orb of crackling blue electricity began to form. Slowly it grew, and blue tendrils, looking almost like short flashes of lightning, shot briefly down to the middle of the platform; the tendrils began to increase in number and frequency, and lasted longer and longer until gradually the centre of the platform had what seemed to be a solid column of crackling blue light stretching from the ground to the centre of the ring. The middle of the column began to expand outward, and inside a black void formed, before a forest appeared, with a red sky above indicating that it was near sunset, hovering there inside of a glowing blue doorway.

"Incredible..." the woman whispered, awestruck that their plans seemed to have finally borne fruit. "I can't believe we actually did it."

"We haven't quite done it yet. Let's begin." Taking an apple from the desk, the man walked to the edge of the platform and tossed it through the glowing entryway, watching as it landed, not on the other side of the platform, but on the floor of the forest they could see through the portal. "Well," he said, "it seems to transport matter at least. Time to see if living things can survive it."

The woman shuddered, as she told her partner, "I still don't like this."

"Nor do I," he responded, "but the math all checks out; there shouldn't be any danger to them, but if there is, we can't risk our foreknowledge of the events to come because..."

"I know..." she interrupted, speaking sadly, taking a bright yellow canary from a cage beside her, waking it from its sleep, before she took it to the platform beside her partner and tossed it into the forest. As they had hoped, it quickly flapped up, and, finding itself in a brightly lit, forested area, fluttered to a nearby branch and began singing.

"Oh, thank goodness" she breathed, seeing the bird was alright.

"Right then," the man said, going back to the keyboard and typing away. "Time for one last test."

Saying this, he took out a small black handheld device, about the size of a cell phone, and tapped briefly on the touch screen present on its face, before typing a command into the keyboard that popped up shortly. Immediately, the portal began to shut down, the electricity coursing through it fading away as its source was cut off.

"Excellent," he said, "control of the portal and its opening and closing has been successfully transferred to our long-range transceiver, and everything on our work is being permanently wiped from the computer as we speak."

"Meaning even if someone does find this place, they won't be able to use it, correct?" The woman received a nod in confirmation. "Of course," she continued, "they could still reverse-engineer the portal itself, but considering most of the real work is in the calculations and programming we had to develop, that still wouldn't get them too far."

"Right. We should be the only ones capable of using it for the foreseeable future, and with this in hand," at this he wiggled the black transceiver for emphasis, "we should be able to get back home anytime we feel we need to."

Saying this, he typed briefly once more into the device, and the portal began the process of reopening. As the crackling portal finally revealed the forest once more, the canary they had sent through earlier, startled at the sudden noise and reappearance of the gap between worlds, took off with a startled sound and flew away, and the two friends prepared to enter it.

"This is unbelievable. It's actually happening- we're travelling to a different world!" the woman enthused.

"Thrilling, isn't it?" A wide smile appeared on the man's normally neutral face, one of the rare times his emotions overcame his self-control and his feelings made themselves clear. "Well, I guess this is it. Remnant, here we come." As he spoke, the man walked back to the platform with the woman, and together they walked through the portal and into the forest, immediately collapsing, unconscious before they hit the ground.

Entering the warehouse, a shadowy figure approached the monitors in front of the platform. Quickly scanning the information on them before they disappeared entirely, a rough chuckle erupted from the concealed face, before an amused voice spoke out.

"So, you found a way to Remnant, did you? Heh, no doubt off trying to save Ruby and co from the events of Volume 3. Well, let's just see about throwing a wrench in those plans- after all, you're not the only ones who've seen what's to come for little Red."

As the computers purged themselves, they set off small charges intended to destroy the hard drives, preventing the information from ever being recovered and startling the figure out of his reverie. Seeing that the portal would soon close, the figure rose and swiftly walked through it, only moments before it shut down, and the warehouse was plunged into total darkness.

* * *

 _The Emerald Forest, just outside Vale, the following morning_

Slowly coming to, the two people from the warehouse looked at each other in mild confusion.

"What happened?" The woman asked.

"I don't know. Whatever happened, though, it hurt."

"Wait." The woman started suddenly, shock on her face as her sleep-addled mind cleared and she saw something seriously off about her companion- and herself, now that she noticed it. "What are we wearing?"

"Huh?" He looked down for a moment, his own mind still fuzzy, but startled into wakefulness when he noticed what she was talking about.

He was now dressed in a clean pair of light blue jeans, with a high-quality sword belt of new leather, along with a pair of grey combat boots, which he could feel were reinforced, as well as a pair of steel greaves. He also had on a light blue t-shirt, over which was a steel breastplate with a small design over his heart: a gleaming yellow sun with a silver sword piercing it from above. His hands had soft leather gloves on, and there was a steel vambrace covering his right forearm, along with steel pauldrons on both shoulders, while his chest had two belts crisscrossing over the breastplate, both of which had a number of slots filled with what appeared to be shotgun shells, and a pouch on the left side of his sword belt contained what felt like weapon magazines. Finally, he had a wide, studded leather strap on his left forearm and a small metal object, roughly camera sized, clipped to the right side of his belt, apparently, magnetically. He reached for the pocket were he normally kept his wallet, pulled it out, and checked his ID. Somehow, his normal ID had changed as well as his outfit, and he quickly took in his new information.

"Steele Summers, is it?" He said, reading out his new (apparent) name. "Huh. Well, that was... Unexpected."

"And my new name seems to be, uh... Tania Tenné." His companion spoke, and "Steele" took a look at her new appearance.

A boiled leather cuirass was worn over a tan tank top, while black shorts reached halfway to her knees, a light brown leather belt around her waist, with several small pouches and a single larger one attached, the belt buckle in the form of a tan vortex, crossed by twin golden swords. Knee-high black socks were visible on her legs, underneath a set of bronze greaves, with tan combat boots on her feet. She had bronze vambraces on her arms, as well, with fingerless tan elbow-length gloves worn beneath them. Her normal pair of gold stud earrings were still on, as was her ring, a silver band with a small emerald set in it, worn on her left index finger, though a new waist-length tan cloak was on her back, fastened at her throat by a golden broach which took the same form as her belt buckle. Over her shoulders, he could see the tan hilts and crossguards, as well as the top of golden yellow blades, of a pair of swords, both of which had pommels that, once more, took the same form as her buckle- this, he could only assume, was meant to be "Tania's" crest. When she went to stand up, her back was to him briefly, and he saw her crest once more in gold on the back of her half-cloak, with her blonde hair now free of its ponytail to hang loose, reaching just beneath her shoulders. Getting a better look at the swords, he observed that they were fairly nondescript, apart from their pommels and colour, though he was now able to see that they were of different lengths. The blade over her right shoulder was a broadsword, while the other was a short sword, and both were strapped to her back via a magnetic plate.

As she stood, Tania stretched, then noticed Steele looking at the hilts of her swords. Not having noticed them yet, she glanced over her shoulder to see what he was looking at, and her eyes widened at the sight of the weapons. Grasping the twin hilts, she drew forth her new weapons with a grin and a flourish.

"Nice balance they've got." She said admiringly, giving the blades a few twirls, before a strange, faraway look came into her eyes, and she brought the two blades together, connecting the two with some mechanical whirs and clanks, the now-fused weapon changing shape entirely until she held in her hands a semi-automatic sniper rifle with a gold-coloured scope and barrel and a tan stock, her crest present on either side of the butt. "Neat," she said, her grin widening even further.

Steele looked on, impressed, before looking down thoughtfully and muttering to himself, "I wonder." He took the metal object clipped to his belt in his hand, strange thoughts springing unbidden into his mind. Hardly realizing what his body was doing, he found the object expanding outward until he held what he recognized as a bastard, or hand-and-a-half, sword, so called because the hilt size and balance allowed it to be wielded effectively either one- or two-handed. " _Caliburn",_ he heard somewhere in his mind, noticing subconsciously that the word also seemed to have been spoken out loud by... him, he supposed. At the same time, the strap on his left arm began to expand, bringing forth a tower shield of the same light yet extremely sturdy material that the sword, and, now that he thought about it, nearly all the weapons used by Huntsmen and Huntresses in Remnant, seemed to be made of. Though unseen by him, the same symbol present on his breastplate was also emblazoned upon the front of his shield, the sun and sword residing upon a field of white. Looking at the shield, the name again leapt to both his lips and mind. _"Aegis."_ The top of the shield, he noticed, curved downward toward the centre, and in the middle, at the lowest point, there was what appeared to be some sort of mount. His body again knowing what to do even before his mind did, he found the sword in his hand changing form once more, until he held a pump-action shotgun, which he found could be easily attached to and detached from the mount on the shield.

"Pretty cool," Tania told him, a massive smile adorning her face, "but I still think my _Crimson Rain_ is cooler. And it's got a way better name."

"You wish," came the response from Steele, who also found himself uncontrollably smiling. "Well, we're here, we seem to be pretty well equipped, and we know what we have to do. Let's get to it."

The two friends put their weapons away, before brushing the leaves and other greenery off themselves and walking together towards the nearby city which they both recognized as Vale.


	2. The Thief

**A/N:** Alright, next chapter's up! Introducing one of our four new protags, ladies and gentlemen, here she is, Elune Althea!

* * *

 **The Thief**

 _SDC Corporate Office, Vale Branch, midnight_

 _By Oum and the two brothers, I can't wait for this shift to be over,_ Cole Noire thought to himself. Not only had the SDC guard ended up with the graveyard shift this week, he also happened to be patrolling alongside Chatty McChatterson himself, Sal Reddin, the most annoying man in Remnant, at least insofar as Cole was concerned.

Suddenly, Cole realized something was wrong. Sal was silent. Sal was never silent; there wasn't so much as a single minute in any given day when Sal wasn't running his mouth about this nonsensical dream or that ridiculously boring event. Turning, Cole saw Sal staring, mouth agape, towards the entrance of the office building they were patrolling around. Following his gaze, Cole noticed something off about the Atlesian Knight 130s that were guarding the entrance. Namely, the fact that all three of them were on the ground with crossbow bolts lodged inside of them, one jerking erratically, the other two completely still.

Making his way over to the knights, Cole observed that the bolts were expertly placed, hitting their targets in key areas with minimal armour so as to take them out as quickly and quietly as possible.

"Sal," Cole said, breaking the other man out of his stupor and surprising himself with how calm he was remaining. "Go. Sound the alarm. Get the chief, the VPD, anyone you can. Now."

Sal looked at Cole, back to the building, then once more at Cole, before nodding and running off to the guard post nearby as Cole slowly and carefully entered the building, preparing himself for whatever he might encounter within.

At the facility's mainframe on the second floor, a woman in night blue jeans, dark grey steel-toed boots, a navy blue v-neck shirt and a hoodie with a camouflaged pattern in dark shades of grey and blue was busy copying files onto a flash drive. On a dull black belt around her waist rested a pair of self-reloading hand crossbows, with their limbs collapsed against the stock. Both crossbows had a small symbol on the outer side of the handle, a white circle with crosshairs beginning just outside of the circle and ending halfway to the centre, as well as a dot in the middle with three equally spaced lines jutting out from it, just as a bolt and its fletching would appear from behind. Her dull black gloves flashed across the keyboard as she searched for the files she was here for. Suddenly, she glanced up, hearing movement near the door. Drawing her crossbows, she rose from the computer, took a few steps back, and all 5'2" of her vanished into the shadows near the wall.

Slowly entering the mainframe room, Cole raised his standard issue dust rifle, not for the first time wishing they could be provided with something with a bit more firepower. Suddenly, a cloak of darkness fell over him, and he found himself completely blind, unable to see even the backs of his own hands.

As he fumbled around in the sudden darkness, some tiny part of his mind registered hearing a faint "twang", and he suddenly felt a painful impact in his chest, followed by an intense electrical shock and a brief warmth in his pants, and then, mercifully, nothing, as he thudded, unconscious, to the floor.

Collapsing the limbs of her crossbows and stowing them once more on her belt, the intruder, Elune Althea, had just started back to the computer when she heard the alarm ring out.

"Shit."

Hurrying to get everything she needed onto the flash drive before she could leave, Elune was paying so little attention that she barely noticed another figure at the door, until she heard a weapon discharge, and she barely ducked under a blast of energy from what seemed to be some sort of dust-powered plasma rifle. While she managed to avoid the shot, her hood fell off, revealing white chin-length hair held back by a pair of hair pins, and, rather more interesting, a pair of owl's ears on top of her head.

"Shit," the faunus muttered once more, seeing several more guards running up to join the one she was already facing. Fortunately they were only armed with the same simple dust rifles that the first one had had in his hands, but this was still far more trouble than she had planned on tonight.

Activating her semblance, Elune once more dropped an orb of darkness over the area, leaving the humans with practically no visibility, while her own faunus eyes could still see them clearly. Leaping aside to avoid any shots they might fire at her previous location, she took out her crossbows once more and fired several more lightning dust-imbued bolts into the guards at the entrance, dropping them like flies.

What she didn't expect was for the lead guard, the one with the plasma rifle, to avoid her shot entirely, follow her precisely with his weapon, and let off several more perfectly aimed shots.

 _SHIT!_ She thought to herself. _I'm really not doing well tonight._

She just managed to avoid the first two shots, but the third and fourth hit her, first in the arm, then square in the chest.

Using the force of the shots to propel her, she rolled under a nearby desk for cover. _Damn, that hurt. Ok, pull yourself together_ , she thought.

"You can't hide from me," she heard the guard say, as more blasts from his weapon punched into the desk around her.

Another bolt came flying past him, and he dodged easily, before he noticed that this one had some sort of cord or wire attached to it. Hearing a whirring noise, his gaze flew back to where his target had been hiding, just in time to see her flying through the air towards him, pulled along the cord at an incredible speed, before her knee collided with his face. Flying backwards, he heard the crossbows loose once more, moving automatically to evade the bolts he was certain were flying his way. However, when he went to stand once more to confront her, he found the floor beneath him slick with ice from dust within the bolts.

Smirking, Elune congratulated herself mentally on successfully hampering her opponent's movement, before she brought up her crossbows again, once more loaded with electric dust bolts.

Managing to regain his balance on the slippery floor, the guard looked up and saw two more bolts flying towards him, and this time he knew he wouldn't be able to avoid them. A blast of electricity coursed through his body, and he flew into the wall, out cold.

The smirk faded from Elune's face as she remembered that, while she had taken care of this particular threat, the alarm was still going off, and she still needed to finish up here.

She moved quickly back to the computer, seeing that the file transfer had just completed. A smug smile returning to her face, she removed the flash drive from the computer, before putting two electric dust bolts into the building's electrical systems, shorting them out and taking down the entire building's network. She started out of the building, but before she reached the stairs to the first floor, she came upon a window, and, glancing out, she saw at least a dozen VPD officers, led by what looked like a Huntsman, approaching the building.

Knowing she wasn't up to fighting a professional Huntsman, especially after taking several shots earlier,she took off running in the other direction, taking out her crossbows as she went and switching out the clips within them with new ones she had on her belt. As she ran, she raised her left crossbow and fired a bolt crafted with fire dust, blowing a hole in the wall opposite her as it hit. Leaping through the new hole, she twisted and fired the right crossbow at the top of the building on her left, the bolt flying upward and trailing a cord behind it. As the bolt hit and her dust-powered reel started bringing her up, she caught a glimpse of the Huntsman just reaching the top of the stairs from the first floor and turning towards her. Using her semblance once more, she dropped an orb of completely impenetrable darkness over him, blinding him as she escaped across the rooftops.

* * *

 _White Fang forward operating base (FOB) for the City of Vale, in the slums in the South-East, the next morning_

The White Fang lieutenant in front of her smiled to himself, his tail wagging slightly, as he checked the files on the drive she had given him. "Heh. You've given us more than we could have hoped with this. We'll be able to do something real, make a serious difference, thanks to the information on here," he told her.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. Look, just give me my promised pay and I'll be on my way."

"I'm serious," he continued. "Your skills have been a huge benefit to the Fang, and you've proven yourself a valued ally time and again. Are you sure you won't consider joining us as an official member? You could go far in the White Fang, I guarantee it."

Elune cringed inwardly at that, though her face betrayed no emotions. "No. I've told you before, and my answer hasn't changed. Just because I've done a few odd jobs for you to pay the bills, doesn't make me an ally; I don't want to be tied down, and frankly, I don't care to be a part of your war."

"Heh. You're a faunus, kid. You're a part of the war whether you want to be or not. Bah, I can see I'm not getting through to you. Ah well, I'll get this to Adam, he'll be interested in it. Heh, this one in particular ought to be right up his ally- an SDC train full of dust, and heading right by his camp in Forever Fall, too, tomorrow morning. I'll give him the info on that right now, give him more time for prep."

Seeing the exasperated look on Elune's face, he heaved a sigh and left the computer, moving to the side of the tent, texting the aforementioned details as he walked. "I know, I know, 'just pay me the money and I'll leave', I get it. Here you go, kid, and good doing business with you. And if you're interested in a bit more work, there's details on another job in there, one that Adam Taurus himself ordered done, and requested you for." He hefted a briefcase onto the table in front of her, popping it open to reveal several high-quality dust crystals as well as a substantial amount of Lien.

As she pulled the briefcase towards her, they heard muffled shouting and gunfire from outside of the room.

"I'll go sort that out, whatever it is," the LT said. "I know you always like to count every Lien. Heh. Hopefully by the time I've sorted out those idiots out there, you'll have finished."

Elune merely nodded wordlessly, taking the Lien from within the briefcase and sorting it, counting to ensure that the payment was, indeed, the agreed upon amount. As she did so, the LT grabbed his double-ended spear before he opened the door and headed out, shaking his head in disappointment, partially at her refusal of his offer, and partially at the idiots he was in charge of, who seemed to be incapable of keeping their disagreements (which also seemed to be getting more frequent) quiet and inconspicuous. Seriously, they were inside Vale itself! With the rate those morons got into fights, and the volume of those fights, they would be lucky to get away with only being discovered by the VPD, as opposed to a Huntsman or Huntress.

Elune continued counting the Lien within the briefcase after the door closed, meticulous in doing so, though she knew the Fang wouldn't cheat her. They relied on her too much to alienate her by stiffing her on payment for jobs.

Finally finished her count, she placed all the Lien cards back in the briefcase and took the note on the new job they had for her, noting absently as she looked over it that, rather than diminish, the sounds of fighting outside had instead grown louder since the LT went outside, though they were finally beginning to subside now. As she clicked the briefcase shut and locked it, a crash made her look up in shock as the LT slammed straight through the door, taking it off its hinges with the force of the collision, and crashed into the opposite wall. Raising an eyebrow, she stood up, grabbed the briefcase and made her way casually to the door.

* * *

 **A/N:** A short description of each character's semblance will follow their introduction chapter, to ensure that I've made clear how they work. So, without further ado: Elune's semblance, _Lights Out_ , allows her to restrict visibility by reducing or even completely eliminating all light within a fixed spherical area. She can centre this area anywhere within her sight line, though the closer it is to her the easier it is to maintain; likewise, she can adjust the radius of the sphere- the larger she makes it, the less time she is able to keep it up for.


	3. The Hunter

**A/N:** Yay! Finished in time for a birthday release! So, in celebration of my 23rd birthday, here it is: the third chapter of _Hard as STEL_!

* * *

 **The Hunter**

 _Building overlooking the White Fang FOB, minutes earlier_

Lupa Crimsane sat on top of an unfinished wall on a multi-story complex under construction in the Residential District of the City of Vale, glaring down hatefully at the buildings in front of him, where he knew members of the White Fang worked to support their fellow members in and around the city.

He had a height of 6' even, with unkempt, light brown hair half-obscuring a pair of wolf's ears. A blood-red t-shirt and worn black sweater covered arms that were well-toned, though not large, and his black jeans were so faded that they were now a dark grey, with several tears in the legs, and several more that had been repaired, albeit by a hand that seemed unused to a needle and thread. Two belts crossed over each other on his waist, with a pouch on each, one on either side. He wore black sneakers with red highlights, and on the back of his sweater was a faded crest, the shattered moon of Remnant in silver, with four red slashes running diagonally across it. On his forearms he had a pair of black metal gauntlets, and as he glared down, he brought his hands forward, extending four red blades from each gauntlet, one over each of his knuckles, and began to sharpen them on each other.

After ensuring that his blades were satisfactorily sharp, Lupa stowed them back in his gauntlets, and took up a pair of binoculars he had set beside him, looking down at the White Fang base beneath him, his wolf ears twitching.

What he saw didn't impress him. Most of the White Fang soldiers posted here were away, on supply runs or whatever else, he didn't care. There weren't more than half a dozen of the rank-and-file left watching over it, along with their commander, and some woman he didn't recognize, but who didn't seem to be White Fang, either. He saw her walking past the guards towards the central command structure, where _he_ opened the door and motioned her in.

Lupa's eyes burned and his vision tinted with red when he saw the bastard. He still remembered the events of that day, burned into his mind as clear as if it were yesterday.

 _He lived with his parents and three older brothers in a small village in the south of Vale. Theirs was a simple life, but a good one. Despite the anti-faunus sentiments that many people still harboured, they were respected and appreciated; after all, doctors with both the skill and compassion that Lupa's parents displayed were a rare, and extremely valuable, commodity._

 _Their participation in the protests by the White Fang on behalf of faunus rights was respected as well, as was that of their children, but even more than that did the villagers respect the fact that after Ghira Belladonna stepped down as leader, and the Fang took a turn towards the violent, they left, and refused to have any more part of the White Fang._

 _Then came that fateful day, when their peaceful existence was shattered completely._

 _The Fang didn't like the doctors leaving; such skills would be needed, especially with the more militaristic leanings that they were now taking. So, one day, a squad of White Fang soldiers showed up at Lupa's home, led by their newest officer._

 _Lupa was in the dining room working on his homework when they showed up. His parents, ever the paragons of courtesy and kindness, invited them into the living room to hear what they had to say, his father staying with them to ensure they were made comfortable, while his mother moved to the kitchen to prepare some refreshments._

 _Not long after she returned to the living room, Lupa heard yelling and arguing. When he moved to the entry to see what was going on, he saw the new Fang officer take out a double-ended spear and plunge it into his father's chest, as those following him raised their guns and put dozens of bullets into his mother. When they refused to return to the "loving family" that the Fang claimed to be, they murdered his parents in cold blood, and when his brothers came running into the room to see what was going on, they were gunned down as well._

 _Frozen in shock and fear, Lupa could do nothing but watch as his parents bled out in front of him, as the bodies of his brothers, now riddled with bullet holes, lay in growing pools of red. Then their commanding officer ripped the spear out of his father with a sickening sound, and turned towards Lupa._

 _Seeing him like that, so cold and composed, even while drenched in the blood of the dying man beside him, rage overcame everything else within Lupa. Running at him, Lupa suddenly felt a blinding pain in the back of his head, and the floor came rushing towards him. The last thing he saw was the White Fang officer crouching down and looking at him, a slight smirk pulling at his lips, face still covered in blood, before darkness engulfed him._

His eyes stinging with tears at the memory, Lupa twisted the ring on his right middle finger. It was a simple gold band, his mother's wedding ring, and his last memento of her. After several moments, he managed to pull himself together, and put the binoculars away. Taking several deep breaths, he stood up, took one last look around the White Fang facility to ensure he wouldn't be surprised by sudden Fang reinforcements, and leapt off the fifth story wall.

It had been a good day for Viridian. He had just received his first real mission with the White Fang, and he and Lavender were going to go out tonight to celebrate. His head in the clouds, he barely even noticed when one of the other FOB guards standing in front of him, _Indie, that's his name_ , busy cloud-gazing, as usual, suddenly turned pale as his jaw dropped fast enough to dislocate it. Snapping out of his daydreams, Viridian opened his mouth to ask what was going on, when suddenly a massive weight hit his shoulders and he dropped like a sack of rocks.

Lupa landed with his feet on the shoulders of one of the Fang guards, using him to slow somewhat before he hit the ground. As the poor sap crumpled to the ground, Lupa went into a roll, before rising to his feet, claws extended, leaping at the other guard in front of him before he could gather his wits enough to raise an alarm. With two strikes to the gut, the guard's aura was depleted, and as he hunched forward in pain, Lupa's knee rose to meet his face. Blood erupted from the now-broken nose as the guard stumbled backwards into the wall behind him, before another strike to the head, this time from an elbow, took him completely out of the fight.

Unfortunately, the other guards seemed to have noticed now, as they rushed towards him, drawing their weapons and yelling out. _Four on one_ , thought Lupa calmly, a small, vindictive smile finding its way to his face. _Poor saps have no idea what they're getting into_.

Raising his left arm, he shot off a short burst of machine gun fire at the guard in the lead, causing him to stumble as his barely adequate aura strove to shield him from harm. Before he could recover, Lupa was on him, with an axe kick to the head depleting his remaining aura and dropping him to the ground.

As the remaining guards raised their weapons, he fired a shotgun blast from his right gauntlet at the rifle of the guard on his left, knocking his aim askew, before rolling towards him to avoid the scattered, haphazard fire of his partners. Using his left gauntlet to knock the guard's weapon out of his hand before he could recover, Lupa kicked out at his right knee while using his right hand to leap to his feet. The guard, his leg no longer supporting his weight, dropped to a knee, involuntarily turning slightly as he did so. Lupa grabbed him, using his momentum to continue the turn until he had the guard in a chokehold, between himself and the two remaining guards.

Their doubt and lack of disciplined training showing itself in their faces, the two hesitated and ceased fire at the sight of their comrade being used as a meat shield, before glancing at each other for a moment. All the opportunity he needed, Lupa half-shoved, half-threw the guard at one of his fellows, letting loose a burst of machine gun fire at the other as he ran at him, following up with a punch to the gut with his right gauntlet, before a blast from the shotgun contained within it sent the hapless guard flying into the nearby wall. Turning towards the others, he saw the one he had pushed being caught by the other, causing both to stumble. Lupa raced towards them, sending a knee into the groin of the man he had been choking, sending the already weakened man to the ground in agony, before he caught the weapon of the last standing guard between both sets of claws, then sheared it in half before his rapidly-widening eyes. A foot flew into the guard's gut, before an elbow to the face sent him falling backwards to the ground. Lupa walked over to the guard and stomped a foot into the guard's face, then looked up to the central building, the front door of which had just opened, as his real target, the reason he was here, stepped out.

A flicker of recognition and a shocked look flashed across the bastard's eyes, before he regained his composure and they were replaced by a smug smirk as he removed the mask that was a symbol of his position with the White Fang, tossing it off to the side.

"Well, well. Wasn't expecting to see you here, little bro."

His vision turning red once more, everything seemed to fade in Lupa's eyes except the smirking face of his eldest sibling. "You're not my brother," he managed to growl out. "You're nothing but a dead man."

The smirk on his brother's face widened as Lupa leapt towards him, before splitting his weapon into two sawn-off shotguns, which he raised and fired at the faunus flying through the air, sending him crashing to the ground. "Heh. You'll have to do better than that, little Lupa."

A low growl was the only sound that came in response, as Lupa flung a chunk of rubble half his own size at his brother, forcing the Fang lieutenant to duck out of the way, then ran towards him once more.

As his brother levelled his shotguns at him once more, Lupa's eyes began to glow deep red, and just as the guns fired, a shadowy figure appeared in front of him, taking the shots intended for him before literally melting into shadows once more. Seeing his brother's eyes widen in shock, Lupa used the opportunity to close the remaining distance and punch his claws into his brother's gut. Or at least, that was his intent.

Recovering far faster than Lupa had expected, his brother had rejoined his guns into their spear form and caught both claws with it. "Heh. Pretty neat trick, but it won't be enough," he muttered, before kicking Lupa back several steps and striking out with his spear.

Barely avoiding the blows coming at him, Lupa finally managed to catch the spear between his claws, only to see his brother smirk and pull a trigger, hitting Lupa with another shotgun blast and sending him flying back into the wall.

Rage filling him once more, Lupa's eyes began to gleam red again, before four shadowy figures appeared around him, and they all charged forward at once.

Having more time to observe them this time, his brother noted that, while seemingly composed entirely of darkness, these figures otherwise appeared to be identical to Lupa himself in build, appearance, and even the weapons on their forearms. Further, he noted that, while earlier Lupa's eyes had only glowed briefly, they now maintained a faint red gleam, as did the eyes of all of his copies.

He managed to hit two of them with shotgun blasts before they reached him, and as before, they seemed to melt into shadow. As the two remaining copies and Lupa struck at him with their claws, he managed to block two of the blows, but the copy on his left managed to land a blow, its claws scraping at his chest. However, he realized when it did that the strike, while it seemed to be a hard one, barely touched his aura. He grinned, before seeing the same expression on Lupa's face.

With Lupa's right gauntlet caught on his brother's spear barely a foot from his face, he pulled the trigger, sending a shotgun blast right into his face and sending him reeling backwards. Focusing, the red glow in his eyes flared brighter as he brought out two more copies, making it five on one again, before they charged once more.

Realizing the copies were significantly weaker than the original, his brother took aim at Lupa, only to see him duck and roll, obscuring himself behind the black forms, as they rushed toward him. Cursing, he swung his weapon, spearing one through the throat, before one of them leapt to tackle his legs. Bracing himself for the trip, he failed to anticipate the two other copies grabbing his arms to restrain him as Lupa, now standing once more, lunged at him, striking in a rapid flurry of blows.

His aura rapidly depleting, the Fang lieutenant realized he had to do something fast. Managing to free his legs, he lashed out, kicking away the copies restraining his arms, and struck out at Lupa, pushing him back before stabbing at his left side.

Rather than block or avoid it, Lupa took the blow, turning slightly to the left so that the spear would skim past him, then grabbed it with his left arm, locking the spear against his body. Sweeping his leg out, he tripped his brother before slamming his right fist into his face, firing the shotgun again. His brother stumbled back, the blows nearly draining his aura completely, before realizing that this weapon was still locked in Lupa's grip.

Lupa gave a mighty pull on the spear, his brother stumbling forward with it, before slashing at his chest; a smile appeared on his face when he saw the blades leave a glistening red trail after connecting, indicating that he had finally broken through his opponent's aura completely. He lunged forward, headbutting his brother hard, feeling a nose shatter under the blow and seeing his brother stumble back. Pouring aura into his legs, Lupa launched a back kick into his opponent's chest, the aura-enhanced kick sending his brother flying back into the building he had first emerged from, hitting the door so hard that he knocked it clean off of its hinges, before crashing into the wall behind, unconscious, if not worse.

Catching his breath, Lupa heard footsteps, and looked up again to see a woman emerge from the door, wearing a hoodie and jeans in dark blues and greys, with a briefcase in her left hand. Figuring that she was with the Fang, he got ready to fight once more.

Instead, she simply glanced around at the carnage, before noting his aggressive stance and giving a short laugh.

"Well, you seem to have taken down my employers."

"So you are with the Fang. Then I'm going to have to take you down."

Another laugh. "Sorry to disappoint, kid, but there's no money in fighting you, and that's the only reason I fight."

Growling, Lupa charged forward, only to have the world disappear into blackness. Stumbling to a stop, he heard the twang of a bowstring, then what sounded like a reel, and more laughter, this time from above.

"Maybe I'll see you around, kid. Doubt you'll see me, though."

When the darkness lifted, Lupa looked around, but he could see no trace of the woman. With a low growl, he decided to leave it for now, and went to the doorway he had kicked his brother through.

* * *

 _White Fang Camp in the forest of Forever Fall, that afternoon_

Adam Taurus was in his tent, discussing new information that had come to light with his top lieutenant, and with his partner, Blake Belladonna, when they heard the sound of fighting from outside. A scowl appearing on his face, he gave a nod to the other two, and they all grabbed their weapons before heading outside.

What they saw there shocked all three of them. Several White Fang guards were unconscious on the ground, surrounding a spear impaled in the ground. Hanging on top of it, covered in blood, was...

"That's Crimsane's mask, isn't it?" Blake asked.

A low growl sounded in Adam's throat. "It is. I'm going to find whoever did this, and make them pay."

* * *

 **A/N:** So, as I said, a short description of Lupa's semblance, _Pack Strike_ , will now follow.

Lupa is able to bring forth several copies of himself to aid in battle

These copies appear identical to Lupa himself at the time of his semblance's activation, save for the fact that they appear to be composed of solid shadow

As a side effect, on activation, and for as long as he has his copies out, the eyes of Lupa and his clones glow red

For every copy Lupa brings out, the strength of each one is reduced (though even with only one, it's significantly weaker than Lupa himself)

Each copy also causes a heavy drain on Lupa's aura for as long as they're out; his current maximum is four copies at once, for no longer than a minute, before he has to release them and recover


	4. The Wildcard

**Responses:**

ImAPotterhead: Glad you like it! As for the shipping... to be honest, most of the pairings aren't set in stone yet, but I'd be lying if I said that wasn't one I was considering...

LightningDusk: Thanks, I had a great time.

Anon: I am indeed reading them; again, glad you like it, and see above for the ship response...

* * *

 **A/N:** Well, here's the next chapter, folks. We now get to see our prologue OC's in action! Yay!

* * *

 **The Wildcard**

 _Hill overlooking the White Fang camp in Forever Fall, mere moments earlier_

Watching the young wolf faunus through her scope, Tania gave an exasperated sigh. _He's going to get himself killed._ _Well, I guess there's nothing else for it_ , she thought to herself, as she pulled the trigger of Crimson Rain.

Just as the flap of the tent opened, a hand gripped Lupa's arm and his vision blurred momentarily, before he found himself looking, not at a group of White Fang tents, but at a cluster of trees. Confused, he looked around, seeing that he was now on a hill, with the camp he had just been in some distance away on his right, before looking to his left and seeing a blonde woman in leather and bronze armour with a golden broadsword strapped across her back, the hilt over her right shoulder, pulling a matching short sword out of the ground and stowing it over her left shoulder. Looking towards him, she smiled and held out a hand.

"Name's Tania. Tania Tenné. Nice to meet you."

Tania's smile faltered when she saw the glare on the the faunus boy's face. "Alright, look," she started, "I don't know what you were planning to accomplish down there, but I'm quite certain you could do a far better job of it alive than dead."

"You think I couldn't have taken the Fang? I've fought them before."

"Oh, I'm sure you could take out their grunts no problem, but either you've never seen Adam in action, or you were SERIOUSLY holding back in there if you think you would stand a chance against him as you are now."

Lupa looked at her in confusion. "Who?"

"Adam. Adam Taurus? The leader of the White Fang in Vale?" Tania's jaw dropped at the continued lack of recognition in the face of the faunus. "You're seriously trying to take down the White Fang when you don't even know anything about the leader of this branch? What about Sienna Khan, do you know that name?"

A brief shake of his head was her only answer.

"Well, someone's really thought this through. Look, the point is, you wouldn't stand a chance if you were to try to fight your way through the people in that camp."

"I don't care what you think. I will destroy the White Fang, along with anyone who stands in my way."

Tania sighed. "Look, I admire your drive, I do. But don't you think it might be just a bit more effective if you could actually hold your own against them?"

After several moments of silence, he spoke. "What exactly did you have in mind?"

Smiling to herself, she told him. "Ok, I saw you fighting there. You have skill, I won't deny it; there's a lot of raw potential there. But unfortunately, it's still just that: raw. You need some serious training before you can reach that potential. So what I propose is this: I have a friend in Vale who could set you up with some transcripts to get into Beacon Academy. You meet with him, go to Beacon, and get trained as a Huntsman. From there, you can do what you want; if you decide you want to help protect the world with your fellows, good on you. If you decide to continue your one-wolf crusade to destroy the White Fang, well, at least you might stand a chance against them then."

After weighing her words for some time, she grinned as he finally gave an answer. "Alright then. How do I find this friend of yours?"

"Here's the address," she said, handing him a card. "Just tell him Tania and Steele sent you."

* * *

 _Within the Emerald Forest, dusk of the same day_

 _Damn. That took way longer than I thought it would,_ Tania thought to herself, finally arriving at the location she and Steele had scouted out earlier. _I hope he's still alright_.

Shifting Crimson Rain into sniper rifle form, she looked through her scope at the small band of White Fang soldiers clustered in the clearing in front of her. _There_. She spotted him lying, bruised and bloody, with his hands tied behind him, in the middle of the clearing.

 _Crap. Hope he's not too annoyed with how late I am. Ah well, I'll deal with that when it comes._

She searched the clearing carefully through her scope, noting seven Fang members. Three were on the far side of the clearing chatting with each other, one, the largest of them, was walking towards Steele, another was on her side of the clearing, and two were busy scouting around the perimeter, currently nearing the group in the rear. Figuring she would deal with them first, she lined up her sights carefully and squeezed the trigger twice in quick succession, watching as the pair dropped immediately. Seeing the others start to respond, she aimed at the one on her side of the clearing and fired once more, seeing him fall before the world blurred and she appeared beside him, Crimson Rain splitting into swords which she stowed on her back before taking Steele's weapon, Caliburn, from her belt and shifting it into its bastard sword form as the big one looked towards her.

Now only two steps from the prone Steele, he covered the distance quickly and dragged him up, holding the young man by the hair as a blade he pulled from his belt was shoved against Steele's throat.

"Move and he dies, bitch!"

Steele opened his eyes, seeing Tania in front of him, and grumbled in annoyance. "What took you so long? I finished getting the information we need from these morons hours ago."

The Fang glanced down at him, confused. "What? We didn't tell you any-" he stopped as he saw a flash of movement in front of him, looking up to see that the girl had thrown her sword high into the air towards him. His eyes naturally following it, he suddenly felt his grip loosen and the weight he had been pulling up disappear. Glancing down, he saw that where the bound captive he had held moments before had been was instead the blonde intruder, with his knife hovering above her hair, rather than at her throat. His eyes widened, first in shock, then in pain as her knee found its way into his groin, then in shock once more as she vanished from in front of him even as he hunched over from the blow. Gasping for air, he noticed a shadow appear over his head, and glanced up to see her in the air above him, grasping with both hands the hilt of the sword she had thrown, before twisting and bringing the blade screaming towards his face.

Moving smoothly into a roll after taking down the Fang she figured to be in charge of this group, Tania quickly made her way over to where Steele was standing, still looking rather annoyed. Cutting the ropes, she went to hand his blade back to him, eyes widening when she saw the bruises and cuts glowing briefly and disappearing, though the dried blood still remained.

Steele saw her surprise and grinned. "What? I wasn't going to bother engaging my aura for a beating from chumps like these."

"Wait, you mean you let them do that to you?"

"Well, yeah. I wasn't going to actually fight them before I got the intel we needed, and if I let them wear down my aura for real first, I wouldn't be able to fight when you got here." He looked up to see the remaining three members of the White Fang approaching. "Well, no time for that now."

Taking Caliburn, Steele brought up Aegis in shield form as Tania shifted Crimson Rain into rifle form and took a step behind him. As the Fang soldiers opened fire, Steele took cover behind Aegis, with Tania sheltering behind it as well, before she fired a shot above the heads of their opponents. As the bullet passed behind them, Steele saw her body flicker and vanish from his peripheral, before she reappeared beside the bullet she had just fired, Crimson Rain once more in blade form.

Just above and behind the rearmost Fang soldier, Tania brought both blades down on his head, before landing and rushing to the Fang on her left. Sweeping his feet out from under him with her broadsword, she kicked him in the chest as he fell, sending him crashing to the edge of the clearing.

Distracted by the sudden fighting, the remaining Fang looked towards her, only for Steele to charge towards him, bashing him with Aegis before swinging Caliburn in a powerful chop into the guard's throat, finishing him, and the fight.

Steele and Tania stowed their weapons, and began walking towards Vale. As they walked, Tania turned to Steele. "So, what's the target?

* * *

 _VPD Headquarters, midnight_

After the events of that morning, Elune had contacted Adam Taurus, telling him what had happened at the White Fang's FOB in Vale, before getting additional details for their next mission for her. She might not need the Lien just yet, but she knew from experience that you took jobs when you could get them, to make sure you could still get by when there were none available.

That's why she was here now. Somehow, the VPD had managed to gather far more intel on the White Fang's movements than they should have. Adam was sure it was through the interference of some Huntsman or another, but the how was, honestly, irrelevant. The fact was, they had nearly enough information to move against the Fang stationed in Vale, and Taurus wanted that information gone, or, if possible, changed, so as to throw them off the correct trail.

Just as she finished wiping or altering the pertinent data, her sensitive ears caught a pair of footsteps heading down the corridor towards her location. Quickly arranging everything exactly as it had been when she first arrived, she moved to an already dark corner of the room, then, hoping whoever it was didn't need anything in here and would simply walk by, she used her semblance to shroud herself in further darkness, rendering herself invisible to human eyes, and even any faunus not specifically looking for her there.

Soon enough, two people came walking into view. One was in a VPD uniform, and Elune recognized her as the officer who had been manning the reception desk. The other was a tall, muscular young man with short grey hair and a clean-shaven face who, from the look of his equipment and the officer's reactions towards him, seemed to be a Huntsman, or (more likely, she supposed, considering his youth) a Huntsman-in-training. She perked up her ears, listening in on their conversation.

"I'm not really sure how much we'll be able to help you," the receptionist was saying. "As much as we may depend on Huntsmen and respect you for your work, we can't disclose any details about active cases that aren't already publicly available, and if you can't find it online, it likely wasn't made public."

"That's fine." The two were now at the entrance of her room. The look in the young Huntsman's eyes was unnerving as they swept around the inside, then stopped on her, almost as if they knew. But that was impossible, she could tell he was human, how... "To be perfectly honest, I may have had ulterior motives for asking you to bring me here. See, the truth is," he said, removing something from his belt and pointing what now revealed itself to be a large sword directly at her, "I'm actually here for her."

"Who..." the officer began, gasping and eyes widening as a crossbow bolt suddenly came flying out of a darkened corner of the room; it detonated in a fiery explosion on the other side of a large shield that had appeared just as suddenly in front of her, likely saving her life.

"Go!" Steele barked. "I'll handle her!"

As he said this, she saw another pair of bolts come flying out of the darkness, one headed towards her saviour, and the other towards the wall between them and the main entrance to the VPD station. This time, rather than block it with his shield, she saw the young man roll under the bolt, and when she saw it let off a blast of electricity on contact with the wall, she knew he had made the right move, though she had no idea how he could have known to do so.

The explosion of the second bolt, as well as the debris flying from the hole now present in the wall, shook her from her reverie. She quickly moved away from the new entrance she was sure the intruder would use to attempt escape, wishing she could do more to help, but recognizing that she would likely only get in the way.

"Intruder in VPD headquarters!" she yelled into her radio. "I was just attacked by an unknown assailant within the evidence lockup! There is a Huntsman-in-training in pursuit, suspect appears to be armed with crossbows firing dust-imbued bolts. Backup requested immediately!"

The two combatants had by now moved well down the hallway toward the entrance, the intruder emerging from the shadows and racing away, with Steele in hot pursuit, adeptly blocking or dodging every bolt she sent flying his way. The officer followed at a safe distance, watching as the intruder managed to reach the entrance, shouldering the double doors open, before suddenly staggering. A sharp _CRACK_ then reached her ears, which she recognized as the sound of a rifle being discharged.

The area around the entrance was abruptly obscured by an impenetrable darkness. Steele raced through it, heedless, emerging on the other side to see their target already on the roof of a neighbouring building. "You tagged her, right?" he asked, aware of the sudden presence of Tania beside him.

"Of course. Do you even need to ask?" A playful smirk danced across her lips.

"I guess not. Well, we'll give her a couple minutes to let her think she's lost us."

"And then?"

"Then, we drop in for a surprise visit." Steele said, a matching smile finding its way to his face as he shifted Caliburn to shotgun form and checked the sights. "And I know just how we should do it."

* * *

 _Darkened alley several minutes from the VPD headquarters_

Elune stopped, gasping for breath, but relieved. She had no idea how that man had known she would be there, but it didn't matter. She had accomplished her objective, and then she had evaded them and escaped. Now all that remained was to get back to Adam and get... _Wait a second._ "What the hell is that music?"

*Cue Warthog Music from Red vs Blue*

Suddenly, a VPD Special Operations Task Force Humvee screeched around the corner of the alley, tires leaving smoking black marks on the asphalt, revealing itself as the source of the odd music blaring out. It narrowly avoided hitting the wall as it swerved into the alley, before the high-beams flared to life, illuminating the area and temporarily blinding Elune's light-sensitive eyes.

As the vehicle turned, Steele shouldered the passenger door open and used the momentum to roll out, rising swiftly to his feet and bringing Caliburn up in shotgun form as he did, firing off several rapid blasts at their elusive target. Recovering her bearing, she flipped backwards to avoid the shots, only for Tania to appear behind her, sweeping her legs out from under her before she had a chance to land properly. Even as Elune fell, Tania's legs rose, kicking her towards the entrance of the alley as Steele ran forward, slamming Aegis into her before she had the chance to recover.

As his sword swung towards her from the side, she managed to get her crossbows out, extending the metal blades from the ends of the limbs and catching the approaching weapon between them, before flipping over the blade to evade a low sweep from Tania's blades. She dropped an orb of darkness around them before using her left crossbow to deflect Tania's follow-up attack, while her right reverted back to crossbow form and fired a grapple at the roofs around the top of the alley.

Even as she emerged from the top of the darkness, however, as her reel pulled her rapidly upwards, she saw a golden sword come spinning out from within it, cleaving through her cord before embedding itself in the wall. There was a flicker, and suddenly Tania was on the wall beside the blade, grasping the hilt and pulling it free as she pushed off towards Elune, tackling her to the ground. She then rolled off, as Steele stepped up and held Caliburn's blade at Elune's throat.

"Yield."

Tania stood and leaned against the wall of the alley, shaking her head. "Really? Blasting RVB music? Isn't that a bit much?"

"Kinda ruining the moment."

* * *

 **A/N** : Gotta be honest, Tania is my favourite among my OC's; she's cheery and energetic, with a snarky bite and a headstrong attitude. Also my favourite: her semblance. So, without further ado, Tania's _Displacement_ :

The key to Tania's semblance is her ability to siphon a small amount of her aura into another person or object to mark it. This transfer facilitates several other abilities.

As long as the mark is within a certain radius, Tania is able to feel where it is at any given time (much as others are able to feel the location of their body parts without seeing them)

She is also able to either teleport herself to, or switch places with, the marked person or thing.

Tania can bring others with whom she is in contact with her, but the more mass she teleports (whether she's bringing it with her or switching places), the more energy it takes her to do so.

While teleporting her maximum range takes more energy than, say, across the room, battlefield displacement is generally a close enough relative distance that how far she's going is essentially negligible.

 **A/N:** So, life has this way of throwing massive curveballs just when you think you've got things together. I finished up this chapter Tuesday night around midnight, figured I'd save it and shut down so less-tired-me could do a last-minute proofread/edit before I posted. Just before I went to bed, we got a phone call; my mom was bringing my sister home from the airport for Christmas, and within 10 fucking minutes of being home they got into an accident. My sister is at the hospital, banged up pretty bad but stable, and my mom was killed instantly.

Anyway, I figured I'd put this up so you guys know what's going on; I will come back to this story eventually, but I don't expect I'll be working on it for a while. On the other hand, who knows; I may end up throwing myself into it every chance I get to keep my mind off of life's worst Christmas present ever. Either way, thanks for understanding.


	5. The Tactician

**A/N:** Welp, I'm back. Sorry about the long break, guys, I just... I was having a lot of trouble focusing on writing this, and work recently picked up, so I've also been pretty busy. But! As of now, STEL is back, and we may or may not be getting close to the point at which there will actually BE a Team STEL! We're, uh... we're not really, though. That's still a few chapters off. But! We're finally getting close to Beacon! So... Yay?

* * *

 **The Tactician**

 _VPD Headquarters, 10 minutes later_

"Sorry about the whole 'stealing your car' thing." Steele was speaking in subdued tones to a VPD officer by the name of Jasmine Jae, part of the Special Operations Task Force. "I promise, Officer Jae, I wouldn't have done it if I didn't think it was necessary."

"Ehh, don't sweat it. And please, just call me JJ. Everyone else does." She sighed, before continuing. "Honestly, we've had more than that 'borrowed' by Huntsmen for their work. If anything, I'm just surprised that you actually returned it in one piece."

Steele's jaw dropped. "Wait, seriously? You don't care that we just up and stole a piece of police equipment?"

"Ha! When you work regularly with Huntsmen and Huntresses, you learn not to worry about that sort of thing too much. I mean, with something as big as a vehicle, it would have been a problem if you hadn't returned it, but with it back already, and in one piece, nobody's going to think twice about it, to be honest. Besides, you managed to bring in the perp who broke in last night to sabotage our files, so you'll likely get some leeway thanks to that, too."

"Speaking of which, Officer, uh, JJ... I, uh, I was hoping I could talk to you about her."

"Oh?" JJ raised an eyebrow. "About what?"

"Well, I'm not really sure how to put it." Steele hesitated, and took a moment to collect his thoughts and form his words. "I'm just..." He took a deep breath. "I think it would be beneficial to all parties if we were to arrange a deal with her."

"Huh?" That certainly wasn't what JJ had been expecting. "A deal? What do you mean?"

"Well, I was hoping you could talk to Professor Ozpin, and see what he thought of having her enrol at Beacon. After all, with her skills, she could make an excellent Huntress, and considering her youth and general appearance, I doubt she's living this way by choice. If she were offered a chance to make something more of herself, to have a better life, and to do so legally, I expect she would accept without hesitation."

JJ sat silently, staring past Steele as she weighed his words in her head.

After a long pause, Steele spoke again. "Obviously you don't have to; I mean, you're the expert here. You should do what you think is best. I just wanted to put that out there as something for you to consider."

"Hmm?" JJ stirred, clearly not having been fully aware of everything Steele was saying. "Yeah, sure, kid. I'll consider it. No promises, but I'll consider it."

"Right then. If that's everything, I guess, uh, I guess I'll be off?" Steele hesitated, not sure if his continued presence was desired.

"What's that? Oh, right. Thanks for the help, kid. Maybe I'll see you around." Her voice trailed off as she once more found herself lost in thought.

Taking that as his cue to leave, Steele rose from the table and started towards the door, inclining his head towards JJ as he walked past her.

Upon leaving the station, he met up with Tania, and they made their way towards the apartment they were staying in for now, filling her in on the conversation with JJ as they walked.

"Well, hopefully that's that sorted. But I guess Huntsmen can be kind of assholes sometimes, eh?" Tania finally responded.

"Yeah, I get the sense they're something like the Spectres from Mass Effect. They fulfill an important, much needed role, but there's little to no accountability for their actions. They can do whatever they want, and the only ones who might be able to do anything about it are other Huntsmen."

A ding interrupted their conversation, and Steele checked his scroll, seeing a notification arrive from his computer. "Speaking of which, it seems I've located her."

A wide smile spread across Tania's face. "Excellent. So are we heading there now?"

"Yep. Just as soon as we've grabbed our stuff."

* * *

 _Remote field outside of Vale, the following day_

Steele watched the road patiently through a pair of binoculars, with Tania laying beside him taking a short nap. Both were dressed very differently than they had been before.

Steele wore robes that reached down to his knees, split from the waist down front and back to allow freedom of movement, and coloured a blue so dark they were nearly black, over a shirt the same colour. The robe's hood was pulled low over his head, shadowing a face that was covered by a dark grey mask with tinted lenses over the eyes, the lower half covered as well by a dull black scarf made of a very light material. He also wore knee-length boots of dark leather over a dark brown pair of pants, as well as a pair of dark leather vambraces and gloves. Around his waist, outside of the robe, was a dull black leather belt with several pouches of varying sizes, and on either side was a dull black leather sheath containing a dirk made with darkened metal. A total of 16 throwing knives were concealed in his boots, vambraces, and belt, and he had a variety of other equipment on him as well, though he was hoping he wouldn't have need of it here.

Tania, meanwhile, wore black jeans and a dark brown long-sleeved shirt. Over this, she wore metal greaves, chest piece, and a pair of bladed vambraces, all coloured a dull green. Her dark brown combat boots had metal reinforcements of the same colour, as well as painful-looking metal cleats, and the helmet covering her head and hair was also the same dull green, with a t-shaped visor, and the same tinted lens as Steele had concealing her eyes. Completing the outfit was a dark green cloak which (while it couldn't be seen while inactive) had green wind dust sewn into it, along with twin holsters on her waist, each of which contained a long barrelled magnum-style pistol, one of them loaded with lightning dust rounds, and the other ice.

Seeing their objective approaching, Steele reached over and gently shook Tania's shoulder, waking his companion, and they set off, moving quickly but quietly through the fields, keeping concealed as they approached the road.

A white stallion walked towards Vale, its rider's face concealed beneath the hood of a green cloak. Suddenly, something in the road ahead made them both pause. A young girl was sitting in the road beside a fallen bicycle, crying. Immediately filled with pity, the rider dismounted and grabbed an apple from her saddlebag, walking slowly towards the child. However, just as she knelt to offer the apple, the rider saw a small cloud of dust kicked up on the road behind the little girl, and instantly became alert. She let out a small gasp and leapt backwards, removing her cloak and drawing a staff with a dust crystal on each side as she did, as the girl and her bike vanished into thin air. Replacing them was a young woman wielding a pair of revolvers drawn from holsters on her back, running towards the rider as she opened fire. Deflecting the bullets with ease, the rider brandished her staff, summoning winds that blew the green-haired girl away.

At that moment, another fighter entered the fray, this one a young man with unkempt grey hair, who leapt at the rider in a flying kick, which she caught on her staff before sending him flying back with another blast of wind. Landing on a nearby post, he began another attack, and just as she brought her staff around to blast him again, a third attacker appeared.

Another young man, this one had white, spiky hair cut short, and was wearing a black shirt, jeans, and duster on a lightly-built, 5'10" frame. In his left hand he held a semi-automatic pistol, while in his right he held a whip sword, which he now used to strike out, wrapping it around the rider's staff and yanking it from her hands, just as the grey-haired boy, who the fight's observers recognized as Mercury Black, kicked her square in the chest.

The rider flew back from the grey-haired boy's kick, hitting the ground hard several times, before the green-haired girl, Emerald Sustrai, landed on her hard enough to crack the ground, and the three attackers leapt back to regroup and strike again.

 _We've got another player_ , Steele thought to Tania, communicating with her through the use of his semblance, when he saw the black-clad young man strike. _We'll have to act earlier than we had planned_.

She nodded in confirmation, moving quickly to close the distance and engage the attackers.

The rider rose to her feet, her eyes flaring with raw power as a whirlwind sprang to life around her, and she rose into the air, hovering on air currents. Lightning flashed around her, and she raised her hand, sending bolts hurtling towards her opponents, who only barely managed to avoid them. The rider clenched her left fist, summoning a storm of leaves around her, before an upraised hand froze them all solid and sent the storm of razor sharp ice at her opponents.

In the midst of the the flurry she paused, noticing another young woman, this one with black hair and amber eyes and wearing a red dress, running down the road towards them. Summoning a fireball, the rider hurled it at the approaching woman, who managed to leap over the blast, before skidding to a stop and raising her hand, causing the dust sewn into her dress to rise into the air and coalesce into a number of glass shards, which flew towards the floating girl. Her concentration faltering from the striking glass, the rider plummeted to the earth, rising just in time to see the ambushers striking at her once more. She blocked several blows from the black-haired woman's twin swords and kicked her away, before the white-haired boy fired several shots at her, and the remaining pair launched an assault, lashing out with fist and foot.

Knocking them away, she prepared to rush them with her powers, only for the whip sword to lash around her ankles, tripping her. Landing hard, she glanced back to see the black-haired woman, her swords locked together to form a bow, loosing three arrows simultaneously. They flew towards her, and worry flashed across the rider's face.

Suddenly, sparks flew through the air as three knives clashed with the arrows in midair, sending them flying off course. Steele rolled over the fence, drawing his dirks and moving to intercept the black-haired woman, known to him as Cinder, while Tania leapt onto a fence post and flipped over the rider, firing her magnums at the white-haired man while she did, before landing in a roll between the two and shifting her magnums into a pair of scimitars as she rose.

"Amber," Steele barked out, his voice altered by an unseen device in his mask, "you take care of the illusionist and the brawler, we'll handle the other two."

"Wha? How did you know-" Amber began.

"Talk later, fight now," Tania interrupted, her voice altered as well, before charging the black-clad man who was her opponent.

He opened fire as she approached, but she swept her cloak towards him, sending her aura into the dust sewn within to summon a massive gust of wind that turned the shots aside and knocked him off balance, only just regaining it before she reached him.

Amber, meanwhile, wasted no time in engaging the two she had been requested to handle, blocking several swift kicks from Mercury and countering with one of her own that sent him flying onto his back, before blasting Emerald into a nearby fence post with her winds, then using her ability to slam into her with enough force that the green-haired girl flew a full thirty metres through the air before hitting the ground, the one blow nearly finishing her depleted aura off completely.

Tania had managed to knock the gun out of her opponent's hand, and her twin scimitars flashed through the air, leaving trails of frost and crackling electricity behind them as they clashed time and again with the whip sword. Her blades flew, not giving her foe a chance to retaliate as she pushed him back towards the fence. When his back hit the fence, she used his momentary distraction to lash out, striking his leg with her left scimitar and activating the dust within it to encase his leg in ice, before locking blades and activating the dust in her right scimitar, sending electricity coursing through his sword and into his body.

Steele's opponent, however, was putting up a more substantial fight. Having switched her bow back into twin swords, she launched herself at Steele, not waiting for him to attack. He was hard-pressed to defend himself from the flurry of blows coming at him, the woman's slashes coming in fast and hard. A sudden flash from her dress signalled the activation of some of the fire dust within it, and Steele was forced to leap away to avoid the brunt of the ensuing explosion. Still, the blast knocked him back against the fence, and knocked the dirks out of his hands.

Cinder dashed towards him, a grin on her face, swinging her right sword in an overhead slash. Suddenly, a pair of blades sprang out of Steele's vambraces. He twisted right, and with his right blade he deflected the sword, sending the slash into the fence beside him, even as he thrust out with his left blade, catching Cinder in the throat as her momentum turned her away from him. She attempted to move away, only to find that his blade was hooked behind the metal spur in the top of hers, pinning it to the fence and preventing her from extricating herself from the dilemma she now found herself in, save by losing one of her weapons.

Grabbing the woman from behind, Steele grappled with her, the close quarters allowing his smaller weapons and greater strength to gain the advantage over her superior speed. He slammed her into the wooden fence, knocking away the sword he had locked against it, and, when she swung her remaining blade in a retaliatory slash at his head, ducked underneath it and inside her guard, thrusting both of his blades into her gut.

Using the momentum from the blows to roll over the fence, Cinder brought up a hand once more to send a flurry of glass shards flying towards him. When he managed to evade the attack, she used the time she had given herself to grab her fallen sword and form her bow once more, before taking out three arrows and firing them towards the ground around Amber, who had just finished taking down her opponents, both of them now lying unconscious at her feet, with Emerald bleeding from a gash across her forehead and the right leg of Mercury (now revealed to be a prosthetic) snapped clean in half. Tania, seeing the arrows being fired, as well as Amber's ignorance of her predicament, bolted away from her own fallen opponent and towards the girl, tackling her just as an enormous blast erupted from the middle of the three arrows. With Tania shielding Amber from the bulk of the fire, both girls fell to the ground, their auras wiped out from the attack.

Steele, having seen the blast, as well as the resulting loss of aura, knelt, picking up his dirks, and turned towards Cinder, his eyes, while hidden within his mask, blazing with anger. She smirked, hopping the fence and walking slowly and confidently towards Steele. At that moment, there were several loud pops, followed by a hissing noise as the area was filled with a dense, rapidly thickening smoke, through which, after but a couple of seconds, Cinder could see even her own hands as nothing but faint shadows, with even that barely visible.

Suddenly she felt several sharp blows to her back. Whirling, she struck, her blades hitting nothing but smoke, before she was hit again, this time with a sharp kick to the side of her left knee. Her leg buckled, and as she fell, she felt another hard blow to the side of her head. Furious now, she used the remaining dust in her dress to unleash a storm of glass all around her.

After the sounds of the glass decimating everything around her faded, she heard only silence. The smoke began to thin, and when she could finally make out her surroundings, she saw... nothing. Looking around frantically, she finally saw Steele making his way quickly down the road, supporting Amber and Tania, having used the smoke to escape as soon as his last strike landed. Moving quickly past her three comrades, who were finally beginning to stir, she formed her bow once more, nocking several arrows and taking aim at her fleeing targets. Just before she loosed them, however, she noticed a massive sword swinging through the air towards her. Leaping back, she narrowly avoided a blow powerful enough to shatter the earth in a two metre radius all around it. Looking at the newest arrival, she saw a tall man with spiky black hair and red eyes, wearing a grey shirt, black pants and shoes, and a tattered red cloak that fell just past his waist.

Recognizing him as Ozpin's right hand, Qrow Branwen, she realized she was out of her depth in her current state. Quickly loosing her arrows in front of her, she summoned another explosion, which he avoided without trouble. However, when Qrow looked up again, all four of those who had attacked Amber had vanished without a trace. Glancing to his right, he saw Steele moving away with Tania and Amber, and moved to intercept them, keeping his weapon at the ready.

Seeing their attackers seemed to be gone, Steele stopped and waited for the Huntsman whom he, too, recognized immediately.

"Qrow Branwen," he called out as the man approached. "Your timing is impeccable, and your assistance most appreciated."

"Steele," Tania muttered, still somewhat unsteady, "you're talking like some Elizabethan aristocrat again."

Qrow paused, as yet unsure whether the two with Amber were friend or foe, but willing to hear them out. "Afraid I'm at a disadvantage. You seem to know me, but I have no idea who you are."

"Of course, my apologies. My name is Steele Summers, and this is my friend, Tania Tenné. We're here... well, we're here for the same reason you are. To help keep Amber here safe from threats like the one we just encountered."

"Oh? There's a pretty short list of people who know about her, and I've never heard of you two. Care to explain how you came to be here just in time to save her from her mysterious attackers?"

"Absolutely. However, it's a long, rather complicated story, and all three of us are in rather rough shape. How about we head to Vale, and you get us a meeting with Ozpin so I can explain it to him as well. Might be easier if Professor Goodwitch is there as well. There's a lot to tell you about, and I'd prefer to tell it as few times as necessary."

* * *

 **A/N** : _Dun dun dun!_ Who is this mysterious newcomer? What are his intentions? What will change now that Cinder has failed to obtain the Fall Maiden's powers? All this and more... not next time, that would be a lie. A lot of that's going to remain under wraps for a while. But! I promised a clear and straightforward explanation of semblances! Hopefully I have been and will continue to be successful in that endeavour! Without further ado, Steele's semblance is... drum roll please... Right. That doesn't work too well in writing. Anywho, _Telepathy!_

Steele is able to detect the presence of those around him; furthermore, he is able to "feel" any especially powerful thoughts or feelings on their mind

When focused on doing so, he is able to form a more thorough connection, allowing him to both delve deeper into the target's mind to decipher their thoughts, as well as to communicate with them by sending them his own thoughts

This requires far more focus; because of how much concentration he must have on his semblance, doing this slows Steele's reaction time; as such, in 1-on-1 combat the foreknowledge it may offer is completely offset, restricting it's usefulness to battles against or alongside multiple fighters

Each mind has a unique "accent", easily distinguished from others

The more Steele communicates with a given mind, the easier it becomes to understand their "accent" and the less focus it takes to establish the more thorough connection necessary for direct telepathic communication

 **A/N:** As I said at the beginning, my place of employment has recently started seeing more business. So, while I am hoping to be updating regularly, updates will likely be slower than they initially were. It shouldn't be as long as this last one, but I'm frankly expecting to be too busy to be cranking out a chapter every 1-2 weeks. Still, hopefully you'll bear with me, and please, leave a review, let me know what you think could be improved, what I've done well, et cetera.


End file.
